I had junior high school teachers who were intellectual and had a passion for their subjects.
Those great teachers helped me to develop a passion for learning and a respect for hard work that remain with me to this day.
At Paul Junior High School in Washington DC, intellectual excellence was the norm and it was celebrated. There was no cooperative learning, fake self-esteem, differentiated instruction, or ten-pound textbooks loaded with pictures and useless content. I decided to become a math teacher during my last year of junior high school because I knew that I wanted to return someday to continue the fun, learning, and celebration of excellence that I experienced in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades.
After attending the University of Maryland in the early nineteen seventies, I accepted a math teaching position at Hayfield Secondary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. That experience helped to shape my attitude toward teaching math for the next thirty years. Teachers were forced to individualize 150 students using math booklets written for non-readers. Seventh and eighth-grade students were put into the same math classes and teachers were told that this program was “cutting edge”. I would hear that phrase many times over the next thirty years.
I quickly decided to find a school where I was allowed to “teach”. After seven great years teaching math at Ellen Glasgow School in Fairfax County, I transferred to H.W. Longfellow Middle School where I remained for over thirty years. At Longfellow, my accomplishments included:
• Developing and teaching the original Honors Math course to students in the Gifted Talented Center program.
• Pioneering a one-year course in Algebra/Geometry where students could receive two high school credits upon completion.
• Taught an enriched version of Honors Algebra 7.
• Taught a special proof-based Honors Geometry course enriched with AMC/AIME/USAMO level problem-solving.
After retiring from Fairfax County Public Schools in 2016, I taught at BASIS Independent Mclean for five years. I presently teach math at Nysmith School located in Herndon Virginia.
TEN MYTHS ABOUT MATH EDUCATION AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BELIEVE THEM?
In association with two education advocacy organizations of parents, mathematicians, and K-12 educators (New York City HOLD and Mathematically Correct), my fellow associates and I prepared a document discussing Math Education myths and the reality behind each.
WE UNCOVER TRUTHS BEHIND BELIEFS, SUCH AS:
Only what students discover for themselves is truly learned.
Children develop a deeper understanding of mathematics and a greater sense of ownership when they are expected to invent and use their own methods for performing the basic arithmetical operations, rather than study, understand, and practice the standard algorithms.
There are two separate and distinct ways to teach mathematics. The NCTM-backed approach deepens conceptual understanding through a problem-solving approach. The other teaches only arithmetic skills through drill and kill. Children don’t need to spend long hours practicing and reviewing basic arithmetical operations. It’s the concept that’s important.
The math programs based on NCTM standards are better for children with learning disabilities than other approaches.
Urban teachers like using math programs based on NCTM standards.
"Calculator use has been shown to enhance cognitive gains in areas that include number sense, conceptual development, and visualization. Such gains can empower and motivate all teachers and students to engage in richer problem-solving activities." (NCTM Position Statement)
The reason other countries do better on international math tests like TIMSS and PISA is that those countries select test takers only from a group of the top performers.
Math concepts are best understood and mastered when presented "in context"; in that way, the underlying math concept will follow automatically.
NCTM math reform reflects the programs and practices in higher-performing nations.
Research shows NCTM programs are effective.
Interested in learning more? You can read the full document by clicking on the link below.
